Welch Rolls Canyon’s Credits

The current Canyon High football team is responsible for 11 consecutive wins.

“There’s a cliche, however,” Harry Welch said, “that the sons must pay for the sins of their fathers.”

Therefore, Welch says that opponents perceive the 1985 Cowboy team as 35-0, not 11-0.

Canyon’s winning streak, which could reach 36 when the Cowboys play at Santa Maria tonight in the Southern Section’s Northwestern Conference quarterfinals, is a source of pride to the school. It is also a source of anxiety.

“This team certainly carries that extra burden,” Welch said. “There is extra pressure.”

Before the season began, Welch said it would almost be a relief if Canyon lost.

“I didn’t think coming into this season so inexperienced on offense, that we could go undefeated,” Welch said. “I thought the odds against it would be astronomical.”

But here the Cowboys are again, three wins away from their third consecutive Northwestern Conference championship.

“I am awfully damn proud of this streak,” Welch said. “It’s a tribute, first and foremost, to my assistant coaches.”

Welch pointed in particular to Brian Stiman, the assistant head coach.

Stiman played for Welch at Valley College in 1975 and 1976. And when Welch was the sophomore coach at Canyon in 1980, Stiman helped guide that team to a 10-0 record.

He stepped up to the varsity when Welch became head coach in 1982.

“Every year I look at our team’s greatest need and I ask him to coach it,” Welch said. “And every year his players are always the most prepared and most disciplined.”

Welch likes to talk more about others than himself when it comes to taking the credit for the streak.

He says, “I feel a great deal of satisfaction that something that I have helped generate has had the success that it has.”

He even credits his wife of seven years, Cindee, the chairman of the English department at Canyon.

“Coaches have one of the highest divorce rates of any profession,” he said. “To have someone like her, it’s fabulous. The streak would not be possible without her.”

Add Canyon: The Cowboys defeated Santa Maria, 33-6, in last season’s conference title game, but Welch is expecting things to be more difficult tonight.

So is Santa Maria Coach Barney Eames.

“We didn’t represent ourselves as well as we could have,” Eames said of last year’s game, which was played at College of the Canyons. “This is the biggie for us. We’ve waited a whole year.”

Eames said the Saints were hurt badly last year by the loss of five starters to injuries before the championship game.

“You can’t win a big game like that when five guys are out,” Eames said. “We’d like to get a little respect. We’ve got them on our home turf, we’re healthy and we’re playing pretty good football.”

Santa Maria was 5-5 on the regular season, 2-2 in the Northern League. One of the losses came to L. A. Banning, 13-9. The Saints opened the playoffs last week with a 33-8 rout of St. Bernard.

Running back Wayne Dudley has gained more than 1,100 yards for Santa Maria in 10 games. The quarterback is Mike Eames, the coach’s son. The team’s center is David Eames, Mike’s younger brother.

“This is high school football U. S. A.,” Barney Eames said. “The community really gets behind the team. There is a lot of tradition. I played here from 1956 to 1958, my dad played here, and now my sons are on the team.”

Add Eames: The Santa Maria coach has been watching Canyon on film all week and can find just one weakness on the Cowboy team.

“The right guard’s jersey is faded somewhat,” he said.

Last add Eames: Welch said he is amazed at his team’s success, considering the offensive line averages 185 pounds a man.

“That’s a little misleading,” Eames said. “Their left tackle is 6-3 and 218 pounds. I think Harry was talking about them in the third grade.”

Simi Valley’s M. J. Nelson has a cast on one of his ankles, the result of a severe sprain suffered last week against Arcadia. Nelson’s ankle was hit by a helmet on the game’s first play. The senior running back/defensive back stayed in to help the Pioneers to a 10-7 win.

When asked which ankle Nelson had injured, Coach Dave Murphy said, “I forget, and besides, I don’t want to tell you.”

The cast was put on Monday and will be taken off this morning. Simi Valley will play host to West Torrance tonight in the Coastal Conference quarterfinals.

Said Murphy: “We feel that he’ll be with us, but you can never tell. That’s why we have to prepare like he’s not going to play. . . . It would hurt us both on offense and defense if he were not to play. But we have played very well this season as a team and we were going to have to improve from last week’s game anyway.”

As usual, Granada Hills figures to be one of the top baseball teams in the City 4-A Division in 1986.

But the Highlanders will be hampered playing winter ball because of injuries suffered by five returning starters during the football season. The wounded should be ready for the regular season in February, according to Darryl Stroh, the school’s football and baseball coach.

Greg Fowble, an All-City performer in both sports, will be sidelined six to eight more weeks with a broken bone in his left hand.

Bob Allen’s dislocated left shoulder should keep him out for four to six weeks, according to Stroh.

Dean Yoshitani, who injured his ankle, should be ready in a couple of weeks. Dan Takahashi, who also injured an ankle, is “close to 100%,” Stroh said. Scott Tosti, who broke his collarbone early in the season, should be OK.

Stroh said it helps that all the injured players are seniors.

“They’ve all been through this before,” he said. “They know what to expect and they’ll be ready. Missing winter would hurt them a lot less than someone else.”

Add Granada Hills: The Highlanders won their first seven football games before losing the Valley 4-A League championship to San Fernando, 40-12, and the first-round playoff game to Dorsey, 34-14.

“It was a great season,” Stroh said of his first year as the varsity football coach. “I was really proud of the team. We were the first Granada Hills team to ever go 7-0.”

The only disappointment, Stroh said, was “not knowing exactly where we stood at the end of the year.”

Injuries before and during the game crippled Granada Hills against San Fernando. Fowble, a wide receiver, played only one half against the Tigers. He didn’t play in the playoffs.

Neither did Yoshitani, a wide receiver/defensive back, nor Allen, a fullback/receiver/linebacker, who also punted.

Five Granada starters missed the game.

“I have never seen that many key injuries to me or to anybody else,” Stroh said. “Almost all our skill players were wiped out.

“I don’t know if we could have won with them. We may still have lost those two games, but at least we would have known.”

Last add Granada: Stroh, who has won five City baseball championships, may have had a shot at No. 6 had he possessed better pitching last season. The Highlanders were eliminated in the semifinals.

Stroh has considered using Fowble, a shortstop the last two years, as a pitcher, but would rather not.

He has been impressed with the pitching so far of Mark Kessler, a first baseman last season, and Brett Browning, a backup shortstop in 1985.

“I have also been real pleased with some 10th-grade arms,” Stroh said. “There are three or four kids who are throwing decently. But you usually don’t win with 10th-graders.”